Democrats' New Regime May Forever Change The Face Of The Party

Posted by Political Quarterback17pc on February 23, 2017

Candidates vying to lead the Democratic Party out of the void it was thrust into after November’s election are entering the final stretch of a battle over the party’s future that has raged since Sen. Bernie Sanders presented an unexpectedly formidable challenge to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primaries.

The top candidates for chair of the Democratic National Committee will participate in a live debate hosted by CNN on Wednesday night, shining an unusually bright spotlight on a race that has rarely been this hotly contested.

The 447 voting members of the DNC will cast their votes in Atlanta Saturday for what many observers see as a proxy fight between the progressives who backed Sanders and the party establishment that supported President Obama and Clinton.

“You can see that they’re struggling with the idea, do they hew to traditional Democratic norms or do they break further to the left,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.